


I'm Just Your Problem

by The_girlwholived



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Break Up, F/F, Hurt, Pain, Shame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 20:30:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13818876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_girlwholived/pseuds/The_girlwholived
Summary: The break up of Marceline Abadeer and Bonnibel Bubblegum.





	I'm Just Your Problem

Bonnibel was mind numbingly bored. After five minutes of listening to the other princesses talking about laws and regulations, her attention had begun to waver. Ten minutes, and she had begun to yawn. Fifteen, and she had begun to outright fidget, her mind wandering even as she tried to focus. Democracy was important, after all. She didn’t have to be best friends with any of the princesses, only see them once a month, and that was quite enough. Some of them she might have counted loosely as friends, such as Slime Princess or Turtle Princess, even if the latter, bless her, was one of the most boring people she had ever met. She had a good heart regardless, and was someone she could rely on. The rest, however, were just mindless noise.  
None of them even looked up as she stood, too busy arguing over something stupid.  
The bathroom, thankfully, was quiet. Bonnibel peered at herself in the mirror to waste time, smoothing her pink hair back, then turned back towards the window and almost jumped out of her skin. Marceline was hanging upside down outside the open window with razor sharp fangs on full display, and she burst out laughing, swivelling her parasol to shade her face.  
Bonnibel took a breath, her hand on her chest. Her heart was jumping. Marceline had been cool with her since a party at the Slime kingdom the week before, and this was her first time seeing her since.  
“Don’t do that, Marcy,” she said, trying to sound cross. “It’s-“

  
“Hot?” She suggested, slowly floating back up. “Exciting?”

  
“I was leaning more towards “terrifying and mildly traumatic.” What are you doing here?”

  
She shrugged, the right way around once more. “I know how much you hate these meetings so I came to rescue you.”

  
Bonnibel tried very hard to look enthusiastic about the meeting, but failed miserably. “I have to stay here. It’s excit….”

  
She trailed off, then tried again. “It’s interes….well. It’s for democracy reasons.”

  
Marceline rolled her eyes. “And they’re doing a great job of it. I can hear them from here. Come on, Bonnie, they won’t even notice you’re gone.”

  
Bonnibel had told Marceline no less than fifteen times to stop calling her Bonnie, and she would never admit to the warm glow it gave her.

  
“Stop calling me Bonnie,” she said automatically. “My name’s Bonnibel. You need to go soon, before anyone-“

  
“Sure, sure,” Marceline held a grey hand through the window. Her smile had slipped a little. It didn’t quite meet her dark eyes, which held a strange look. “Last chance.”

  
Bonnibel shot a look behind her, then bit her lip. “Where are you going? Only I’ve got to be back by five for-“

  
“Please, Bonnie. We need to talk.”  
She hesitated. Those words were never good. Their relationship was tentative enough as it was. She wasn’t even sure what she should call Marceline – girlfriend seemed far too casual a term, and anyway, the last thing she needed was the other princesses finding out about it. Already her heart was beginning to race, worrying about if one of the others came into the bathroom.  
But there was nothing else she wanted more, sometimes at night in the castle, than Marceline. Sometimes she wanted to drop everything and run….

  
“Tick tock, Peebs. Time waits for nobody, not even a vampire.”

  
Bonnibel took her cool hand in her own, and smiled. “Let’s go, then.”

She loved flying, loved the feeling of freedom, the feeling of weightlessness as Marceline effortlessly floated them both, and when they finally landed, she was almost disappointed.  
The wind had disrupted her hair, but she swept it back carelessly, laughing in exhilaration.  
They were standing in the woods, near a small babbling stream. The clearing was empty but for them. “Where are we?”  
Marceline shrugged. “I found it this morning. Nice, isn’t it?”  
“Yes,” Bonnibel said, a little confused because Marceline’s favourite places tended to be….well, a little more exciting. They sat down on the grass.  
Bonnibel was first to break the silence. It was uneasy, something hiding beneath it, nothing like the usual silences between them. “How did you know where I was?”  
Marceline held out a thin hand, plucking a blade of grass, and she looked down, twisting it in her fingers. Her face was cast in shadow from her parasol, but Bonnibel was sure there was none of her usual humour in her face.

  
“I looked at the castle, and some of the guards told me.”

  
“Oh. Okay,” Bonnibel swallowed, wondering what they had thought.

  
“They told me you were having a party next week,” she continued, still looking down. “For your birthday.”

  
Bonnibel’s blood went a little cold. “Marcy-“

  
She looked up finally. “Why are you so _ashamed_ of me, Bonnie?”

  
Bonnibel blinked. “I’m not….I mean – oh Marceline, don’t be difficult. I didn’t think you would want to come.”

  
“Yeah. I saw you earlier, scared someone would see me in the bathroom. You never want me at the castle in the daytime, you always blow me off at parties –“

  
“That’s not true-“

  
“Yes it is,” she interrupted. “It _is_ , Bonnibel.”

  
The use of her full name scared her a little.

  
“You wouldn’t even look at me at that party,” she said, voice still carefully controlled. “You told her you didn’t even _know_ me. It’s like I’m…..like I’m nothing. Like I’m just your problem.”

  
Bonnibel sighed. “I’m not like you, Marceline,” she said quietly. “I can’t just….drop everything and go. I’ve got a kingdom to lead.”

  
“I’ve heard,” she said. “About a million and one times."

  
“I’m a ruler, Marceline. You wouldn’t understand, all you do is run off here there and everywhere, without even _caring_ -“

  
Marceline’s eyes flashed red as she leaned forward, and Bonnibel caught a glimpse of fang before they disappeared again.

“You think I don’t care?”

  
“I know you don’t care!” She snapped, childish hurt that she had tried to suppress rising in her. “That’s the whole thing with you, isn’t it? You don’t care about anything. And yes, maybe I am a little ashamed, but it’s only because you’re not exactly something to be proud of!"

  
Her heart was hammering furiously in her chest, her cheeks hot with anger.

  
“Maybe this isn’t working out,” Marceline said coldly. “I thought you were different. I guess I was wrong.”

  
“I guess I was too,” she said, and there was heavy silence. She was trying hard not to cry, biting her lip, forcing herself not to show weakness. It was obvious Marceline had never cared for her, and she was not going to give her the satisfaction of knowing she had. Because she truly did, even now, even when they were arguing like this, she still cared for her.  
There had been others, of course, flashes in the pan. Dukes and lords and kings, boring date after boring date. But Marceline was different, and after almost a year and a half, it was by far the longest relationship she had ever been in. She had honestly thought that this was the real thing, and it hurt, it rent her apart to think it was over.  
“Goodbye, Bonnibel,” Marceline said at last, standing up, and she watched her walk away into the trees. For a moment, she seemed to hesitate, but then she shot up into the trees and flew away, a black dot with a red parasol until she disappeared completely.

Bonnibel sat by the stream for a time, looking at the water. She felt tears threaten at the back of her eyes, but she did not let them fall. She called Peppermint Butler for a carriage, held them in the whole journey back to the castle. She held them in as she walked up the steps and through the hall, as she waved away the guards. She held them in until the lock was placed upon her bedroom door, until she was alone, and she finally let them fall..

 

 


End file.
